1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to printing methods and systems and, more particularly, to printing services in a communications network.
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A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material, which is subject to copyright protection. The owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by any one of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrights whatsoever.
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2. Related Art
Currently, to print one or more documents a user interacts with a computing system such as a personal computer or a computer terminal connected to a computer network. Using the computing system, the user submits a print request for printing one or more pages of the document. The printer then processes each request in order of priority and services each request. Computer software can be executed on the computing system to allow a user to manipulate the printing order for each request, to pause the printing process, or to delete a print request if queued.
Unfortunately, once a print request is submitted and the print data is transferred to the printer, the user loses control over the printing process. In other words, documents that are entered into the print queue are typically printed without the user having a chance to decide when he wishes for the printing process to start or end. This lack of control over the printing process is undesirable, especially when the printer is not within the immediate vicinity of the computing system where the print request is initiated. For example, in the case of a shared network printer, multiple print requests may be submitted by multiple users. Some or all of these users may be unable to immediately retrieve the printed results, due to time or distance constraints.
Without the intervention of a human operator, in most instances printing to a shared printer can be chaotic. For example, the users will have to sort through the multiple printed material to ensure that they pick the printed material and pages that belong to them. Also, processing and printing large files occasionally may take a very long time. As a result, a user with a smaller print job may have to wait for a larger print job to finish if the print request for the smaller job was received later than the larger one. In our quest for instant gratification, these results can be rather frustrating. It would be very useful, if the users have the option to select a file for printing at the printing location by interacting with the printing unit, instead of having to print from a remote computing system where the document is stored.
Some printing systems are currently available that can be configured to store a certain number of electronic files in printable format in volatile memory storage media. A user can then directly access the printable files stored in printer memory by interacting with the printer. Said printing systems, however, do not allow a user to directly access other electronic files stored on remote computing systems and the number of files that can be stored in the printer memory are limited as the memory has a fixed capacity. Especially, the current printing systems do not allow a user to access or print files that are not in printable format. Further, current printing systems do not provide the user with any printing options, such as duplexing, stapling, or other services that may be available at the printing site.
Systems and methods that allow a user to access and print an electronic file stored on a remote computing system in a communication network from a printing device attached to that network are desirable.